To think that I could find a nice holiday on a tight budget?!

Is that per person? Sounds like something I'd be interested in doing

Have a notice at p and o cruises, they often have deals where extra guests sail for free.

18 months ago 4 of us got away for £1550 including coach fare for a week with all food and entertainment.

Just checked Krakow and you can do return for 3 in August for around 400 ftom stansted. A week apartment around 300 to 400. 700 spend is fine for a week there if you are self catering. You'll be able to do the attractions on that budget no problem. Train from airport to centre is 5 Euro last time we did it in 2023 and regular right into airport. No beach but loads going on on the river in summer. We saw a Dragon festival where they sailed huge dragons down the river and they have a most beautiful dragon vote. The Vestula is the river and they do sports and events on it during summer free of charge. The salt mines are a great visit which you can do inexpensively if you do it independent. Schidlers list factory, Jewish quarter, a fantastic castle, biggest town square in Poland and some great summer events in the parks and on the river. Friendly and lively. Definitely worth considering. If you Google it, you'll see what I mean.

Have a look at Braddicks holiday park in Westward Ho! (North Devon). Its right on the beach and is a lovely place to holiday. I've just checked and the cheapest option is 600 for 7 nights the 1st week of the 6 week holidays. The beach is lovely and has lots of surfing there's also a lot do within the area ( if you have a car) lots of nice food options too that don't break the bank and near a lot of super markets

That's true- you have found some cheap flights, well done.

Most of the other prices I have seen quoted for flights in the summer holidays are way more than that.

How about a sailing holiday?

You can sail to Guernsey from Portsmouth return for £423 for an adult and 2 teens including a cabin (third week of August) and then spend time checking out Guernsey, Herm and Sark. Or you could sail with Brittany ferries to Spain or France either as a mode of transport or make it a mini-cruise? I guess this would depend if the cabin was ok for your autistic DC.

You quoted £760 for a 4 day pass for the 3 of them. Thats so much more than the flights I quoted even if the OP includes a check in case.

How could your 10 day pass be cheaper than the £220 return flight I mentioned upthread to Milan (for all 3 of them), one of many examples.

There are a few self-catering beach holidays on Jet2 at the end of July /August around £1300. It only leaves you with 200 to spend on food, which isn't great, but you don't have to pay for luggage or transfers. If you can leave earlier in July then it's cheaper, obviously, but I presume the kids are still in school.

Ok @Teddypear I’ve done a bit of searching and I think this might be very doable - leaving flights out of it.

a week in Eurocamp on edge of Paris- easy to do a bit of cheap sightseeing too , plus the Eurostar both ways- so no luggage restrictions. I had to guess both children were under 11 but if not add about £130 - Eurostar came in around £380 return going out very late afternoon coming back mid afternoon on 18th July returning 25th july

site is £481 for simple nice 2 bed cabin and you can do picnics and self cater easily - site also has cafe etc

the site with great dacimities plus nice pool etc is near a village plus a train station etc so no big difficult expensive transfers without a car. easy to pop into Paris for a day too

well worth thinking about

https://www.eurocamp.co.uk/campsites/france/paris/le-grand-paris-campsite

They also do pizzas, burgers, salads takeaway etc

I don't know this obsession with saying Eurocamp is a good budget option. It certainly hasn't been in my experience! 2.3k for two weeks including ferry and veryyyy long drive, plus a whole lot of spending on top.... The holiday (admittedly 2 weeks) cost us over £4k and involved hassle and lots of cooking for ourselves. Could have flown to Spain and had some meals provided for less!

On £1500 OP you should be able to find a week away for the 3 of you somewhere. Stick some criteria into Jet2 or easyJet and see what comes up. If you can be savvy with dates (last week of August into Sept is often cheaper) then I reckon £500 pp is doable, just.

Maybe try a weekend staycation during term time staying in an Air BnB. Could be pleasantly surprising.

In the UK, at least. But that's why I mentioned Interrail passes upthread. Although depending on your proximity to London, whether your DC are over or under 12 and whether you're confined to school holidays, point to point tickets could work out cheaper if bought in advance.

Certainly, as a non flyer I'm shocked at some of the prices people are quoting for flights in the school holidays- they certainly don't seem cheaper than our 10 day Interrail passes this summer, although I bet there are better bargains out there.

Going against the grain here a bit - I’d apply your £1500 and plan a week of activities you’d not otherwise do - theatre, cinema, museums, historical sights, favourite meals out, theme park, beach day, walking trails, bike rides, whatever - your child with additional needs will be in familiar territory, you will all get to do something different (even the one working, in the evenings) and you won’t be constantly worried about your budget

Yes one of the options that just came up when I was browsing for this thread was a cottage in Lincolnshire, 15 mins from Skegness, 500 quid for the week.

Of course Im sure most people turn their nose up at Skeggy, but Lincolnshire is beautiful, as is most of the East coast and midlands actually.

Hmm, the underseat bags are deceptively big. Nobody needs a massive case for a week in the sun. We have travelled all over with them. You can also take a bag from the airport. I feel like PPs are trying to put her off something that is completely doable.

Trains directly into the airport booked in advance with a railcard tend to be cheap. Choose a location (hence Pisa suggestion) that is a€2 bus ride away from the airport. You just do a boots airside order for toiletries and pay with points if you have any. It’s not difficult or expensive.

Eating out is much nicer and cheaper, and just that feeling you get from the sun, different way of life, culture, is worth the faff of organised packing.

Look up north if a UK break is OK with you. We had a sizeable farm cottage (3 bedrooms) with horses that came to the kitchen window to say hello every morning. It was in Northumberland though. We are from Surrey. Anyway, the cottage was 400 quid for the week. £150 for a gorcery shop for the 4 of us with lots of treats. Couple of pub lunches and we did (free) country walks, picnics, national trust places and a kids farm, found a local pool that was 3 quid per swim session, ice creams and cream teas daily. All in including petrol was less than a grand and we didn't feel like we restricted ourselves. Kids were 8 and under.

It's possible to dream. For instance a quick search revealed that 1 adult and 2 kids aged 8 and 12 could stay for a week in a hotel with sea views in Spain, based on all three having back-packs and 2 having carry-on suitcases, for less than 1200 pounds., at the height of the season: August 11-17.

That was literally one search. It's possible to find cheaper.

The problem is the train is prohibitively expensive for most people

@Teddypear how about Budapest, 1 week, 16-23/7/25 for £930?

You can easily find a Eurocamp site in Northern France for around £1000. Tesco vouchers for tunnel or ferry and you only need to pay for fuel for travel.

Search on facebook and join an “extreme day trip” group for Heathrow/Gatwick. My local one is full of people ferreting out the cheapest flights and the airports closest to cities.
My tips would be Poland or Latvia as costs are really reasonable when you are there. Also look at renting an apartment as that can be more cost effective than hotel rooms and means you can self cater.

And that's another thing about taking the train- no airport parking, and most stations are already in city centres! 😉

Its all the extras, transport to the airport or airport parking, bits and pieces you need because of security that you might not need in the same way for staying here, the luggage issue (with kids its even worse to try to travel light), the transfer once you get to the destination, phone allowances or wifi abroad if the kids want that, exchange rates, self catering means you'll buy a lot of food you wont necessarily use, if in a hotel you'll need to eat out. In the UK, if really pushed for money you can batch cook and take some dishes with you, or travel with some of your basics so that you dont have to do a massive shop

If people really are strapped for cash a UK holiday, if you really search properly is much cheaper. I think people just dont know how to find things, they might look at companies like caravan sites etc, they are very pricey in my view.

Ah, now that is one thing about taking the train- no baggage restrictions.

When you see prices on flights on small bag under seat only though - it literally means very small rucksack and I mean small or a handbag - the minute you want to take what i call hand luggage ie a modest sized cabin bag it totally ramps it all up and I personally can’t manage with a very tiny rucksack - as I said if you all can and just take 1 hold bag between you then it may be just about doable on flights - but I still think it’s very tight to go anywhere abroad in school holidays factoring in food, flights and accommodation -